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Rain shakes up start of Royals-O's series

BALTIMORE -- The main topic of conversation on Friday at Camden Yards was the weather. In his clubhouse office, Royals manager Ned Yost had his computer tuned to a weather map.

"There's a lot of green," Yost said.

A blob of green was moving toward Baltimore.

"Of course you get conflicting reports," Yost said. "But we got one report that said it's just thunderstorms and then the next one we got was, 'OK, it's going to start raining about 4 and then stay 'til 10.' If that's the case, then we'll probably play a split doubleheader tomorrow."

At about 5 o'clock, the grounds crew rolled out the tarp, covering the infield, and shortly a steady rain began falling.

As it turned out, the rain abated and the game began 55 minutes late at 8 p.m. ET.

Dick Kaegel is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.